T. Ganapathi Reddy v. State Of Andhra Pradesh

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTI CE A.RAMALI NGESWARA RAO Writ Petition No.8021 of 2018 Order:

The petitioners state that originally the agricultural land of an extent of Ac.2-80 cents, situated in Survey No.652/11 of Bodumalluvaripalle village, Piler Mandal, Chittoor District was assigned to one N. Srinivas Reddy under Ex-Servicemen quota on 16.02.1992. As per G.O.Ms.No.1117, dated 11.11.1993, the Ex-Servicemen are free to sell away their assigned lands after a period of ten years. Pursuant to the said GO, the said N. Srinivas Reddy sold the said land to the petitioners under a registered sale deed dated 02.07.2013. The names of the petitioners were also mutated in the revenue records. When the revenue authorities tried to interfere with their possession claiming that the said land is a Government land, they filed W.P.No.42610 of 2017 and this Court, by order dated 21.12.

2017, directed the respondent authorities not to interfere with their possession of the said land. Thereafter, when the petitioners intend to sell the said land to some third parties and approached the sixth respondent for registration of the document, he refused to register the same stating that as per the list furnished by the respondents 2 and 5 the said lands are classified as DKT and they are Government lands and cannot be registered under Section 22A of the Registration Act. Challenging the same, the present Writ Petition is filed. This Court in Vinjamuri Rajagopala Chary v. State of A.P.1 considered the said issue and held as follows: 35.

also empowered to de-notify either in full or in part the notification issued under sub-section (2). In our opinion, the redressal mechanism is available only with respect to notifications published relating to the properties falling under clause (e) of Section 22-A. Hence, any grievance of the parties with reference to the properties covered by clauses (a) to (d) will have to be questioned by the aggrieved parties only by appropriate proceedings before a competent Court and the adjudication by such Court would be final. Further, so far as notified properties falling under clause (e) are concerned, the redressal mechanism under sub-section

(4) of Section 22-A would be able to effectively address the grievance provided the mechanism thereunder is effective, expeditious, fair, and judicious. Thus, in order to make an effective redressal mechanism, we deem it appropriate to direct the respective Governments of both the States to constitute a Committee or establish a Forum within time frame, may be comprising of Principal Secretary of Revenue, Director of Survey and Land Records and a retired Judicial Officer of the rank of a District Judge which shall meet periodically to consider the grievances of the persons affected by the notifications. The Committee shall be empowered to examine relevant records and then pass a reasoned order either accepting or rejecting the grievance by either confirming/deleting/modifying any such property from the notified list of properties.

In our view, such orders passed by the Committee shall be binding on the State as well as on the aggrieved person and in the event of any of them being aggrieved thereby, they shall have to approach a competent Court of Law for redressal of their grievance. Now, it is stated that a committee is constituted for dealing with the issues relating to deletion of properties which were included under Section 22A(1) of the Act and in view of the same, the petitioners are given liberty to submit an appropriate representation to the said committee for deletion of the above property under Section 22A(1) of the Act. As and when such representation is filed, the committee shall consider the same and pass appropriate orders thereon within a period of three (3) months from the date of filing such representation.

The Writ Petition is, accordingly, disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.

As a sequel thereto, the miscellaneous petitions, if any, pending in this writ petition shall stand closed.

__________________________ A.RAMALI NGESWARA RAO, J Date: 12.03.2018 Nsr